Design Tool and Role Comparisons

Pick Figma for app and product prototypes, design systems and handoff. Pick Framer when the prototype is a marketing site or landing page that should go live as is.

Pick Framer if you want a polished portfolio live this week with little setup. Pick Webflow if the site will carry a blog, many CMS items and custom code over years.

Use Figma prototypes to decide what to build. Use SwiftUI prototypes to decide how it should feel, and to hand engineers something they can run.

Use wireframes to agree on structure, mockups to agree on look, and prototypes to test behaviour. Pick the lowest fidelity that answers your current question.

Use Rive for interactive, stateful motion inside the product. Use Lottie for linear animations exported from After Effects, like loaders, illustrations and onboarding loops.

Use After Effects to sell an idea or make a launch video. Use Rive when the animation itself is part of the interface and must respond to taps, states or data.

Pick Spline for hero scenes, product spins and quick interactive 3D. Pick three.js when the 3D is the product: physics, logic, shaders or tight performance budgets.

Pick v0 for React front ends that land in a Vercel and GitHub workflow. Pick Lovable for an end-to-end MVP with backend. Pick Bolt for a straightforward build-and-host loop with a clear token budget.

Use Figma Make to bring Figma frames to life and test ideas inside your design workflow. Use v0 when the prototype is meant to grow into production front-end code.

Pick Claude Code if you like describing the outcome and reviewing the result. Pick Cursor if you like seeing and steering every line inside an editor. Many designers end up using both.

Hire a graphic designer for brand, marketing and visual communication. Hire a product designer when you are building software and need someone to own flows, usability and outcomes.

Hire UX first when people struggle to use the product. Hire UI first when the product works but looks inconsistent or untrustworthy. Most startups need one person who can do both.

Hire a front-end developer to build and maintain the application. Hire a design engineer when the gap between design and shipped UI is costing you quality and time.

You need both once a product has real users. Early on, a strong product designer often covers some PM work, and a strong PM sketches flows, but neither should own both for long.

Choose a freelancer for embedded, ongoing product work with one accountable person. Choose an agency for multi-discipline projects like brand plus product plus build, or when you need guaranteed capacity.